Welcome to FDCF
by Taunt Agents
Summary: Here at the Final Destination Correctional Facility, we take pride in our award-winning abilities in dealing with our problematic patients before releasing them as fully-cured citizens of SMASH. You are free to enter but only if you dare.
1. Mr Nook and Mr Red

Authors' Notes: Welcome to our first SSB fanfic collaboration. Constructive criticism and flames are welcome!

**Ok, the first few chapters may seem a little confusing at first but rest assured, we will get around to explaining them in the upcoming chapters.**

Disclaimer: Us owning the characters? That would be awesome.

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Prologue

It was a cloudy day as usual outside of the facility, it smelled of medication and it was just as immaculate, it had to be for the people that lived inside for 'those poor souls' would be more accurate to describe them.

Tom Nook tugged at his tiny business suit nervously, he never liked visiting, but it fascinated him and he was a benefactor when it came to funding it. Leaving it alone was like leaving a customer unhappy or without furniture, he simply could not have that.

He was greeted at the sliding doors, the concierge pleasant as always, primp and blandly-dressed as always. "Mr. Nook," she would say without ever sounding happy. She looked back at her hovering data screens with alien text on them, he'd never understand them. She nodded her face along with the words that scrolled by, her blond ponytail bouncing as she did. A blip of red text appeared and she gestured for the next entryway, an obnoxious beep and sliding of heavy metal doors saying he could proceed. He took a gulp. No matter how fascinating this place was, it was still frightening to visit much less spend extending time in.

Another staff member shuffled up from the doors, she looked relatively harmless, more peppy than the other but more childish as well.

'Nurse Joy' it said on the tag, oh the irony the raccoon would huff at himself, she looked at him with her too-big turquoise eyes framed by light blonde and pink-striped curls, "Oh hello Mr. Nook!" she practically sang rather than spoke. He shuffled along after muttering a nervous reply greeting.

The typical tour began, this time without the usual guards he noted. Not sure to be comforted or disturbed.

She pointed to one of the glass boxes, assured him that he could see in but the patients couldn't see out, "We *just* got these poor dears in, we're still looking for the instigator." He peered in, never wanting to look in, never wanting to look away. There were three huddled children there, they looked like they were sobbing. Tom Nook noticed that they each wore matching blue, green and orange outfits that matched with their respective hair colors.

"Poor kids," he uttered.

Nurse Joy gave a sigh-hum, "Well it is the FDCF's job to take in these poor guys and make them happy endings, so don't be down Mr. Nook!" She gave him a too-happy pat on the head and continued pittering down the hall.

He couldn't tear his droopy eyes away, _'so young' _his thoughts echoed and continued to follow the too-bubbly nurse along. He really should have been used to it by now, and he couldn't deny that the FDCF did undeniably good work.

The tour continued as usual, or as usual as perusing a madhouse could be. Most of the inmates had shown no outward change, some were quiet, keeping themselves to a corner, but the more damaged ones raged like they could see through the glass, scratching and hitting it to no avail. The sight did little to ease Tom Nook's frail heart. This place had shaved years off his life.

After a while Nurse Joy ran into a worried staff member. Another blonde lady, one who managed to look and sound ditzier than Joy did; _she even wore a small gold crown_. "D-did you hear?" she managed between hard breaths. The other staff member gave her a puzzled look then her cute features darkened like an ugly secret creeping back up through the matted soil.

"_**Him**_," she gritted through her teeth, sounding nothing like her personable self from earlier. The other nurse, 'Peach,' Tom Nook had managed to read, heard a crash and ran off with more haste than expected for someone wearing such formal slippers. Nurse Joy of course followed, and Tom Nook was forgotten, but as usual, curiosity got the better of his old mind.

After travelling through hallways that were too alike for comfort they'd managed to find an utterly decimated 'quiet room' as they were called. There was some feral, rabid creature of a boy in there, whose age appeared to be in his preteens. Hissing and spitting like a wild animal, he was growling under his breath, "Where are they?"

There were orderlies there, trying to get in close and either being too cowardly or unskilled to have taken the boy down yet. He looked as though the devil had long ago possessed him.

"WHERE ARE THEY?!" He screamed again, overturning one of the tool tables but instead making it screech painfully across the floor and coming to rest at another staff member's feet. Said staff member did not seem to be much older than the crazy kid but rather looked like a technician with how he wore his blue goggles over his eyes. Next to him was some metal box decked out with strange devices.

The techie noticed the two nurses and pointed his rubber-clad finger frantically at the psychotic kid, "I don't know what set him off!"

"WHERE ARE MY FRIENDS?!" The patient screeched, this time lunging for the young teen wearing the goggles, "YOU FILTHY TRAITOR, WHERE DID YOU HIDE THEM? WHO SAID YOU COULD LET THEM GO?!" The raging one started shaking him violently, while Nurse Peach looked on in horror- she knew what to do, yet couldn't bring herself to do it do it.

The smile was completely gone from Nurse Joy's face now and was replaced a deathly expression carved into her features. She tip-toed closer, using that singsong voice that didn't match the anger blazing in her eyes, "Let go of Mr. Zio now, Red. You don't want to get put into the box do you?"

He looked at her again, the threat having no effect on him, "_**You**_." He dropped Zio who was panting with fear from where he had been pressed mercilessly into the floor.

"_**YOU!**_" The boy repeated, pointing an accusing finger at her, "You're the one I could never catch…_never_…" He took more dangerous steps closer, getting within arm's reach, but Nurse Joy wouldn't have it. In a smooth and brutal motion she'd jammed a needle into his unguarded neck. He howled, clutching at it but failing to pull it out. Within moments, he crumbled into a useless pile on the floor. She gave the cowering orderlies a nod to take the offending thing away.

Tom Nook stared at the boy being dragged out like a rag doll; Nurse Peach made a small noise like the entire thing had happened too fast for her brain to process. She set about helping Zio from where from where he had been crushed into the floor. Nurse Joy was busy smoothing her nurse's uniform out, the welcoming smile plastered back onto her face.

"My! That was exciting. Shall we continue, Mr. Nook?" She beamed at him, as if nothing had happened as she made her way back out of the room. Tom Nook couldn't form any words, he couldn't even stop shaking.

"Poor Mr. Nook! We should go get you something to eat!" She hummed cheerfully as she took his tiny paw into her hand and led him to the cafeteria.

Yes, this place terrified him.

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A/N: Zio and 'Nurse Joy' are actual Brawl characters in disguise, but in a different form for the sake of the fic. Can you guess who they are? =D


	2. Imaginary Friend

A/N: Thanks a lot to those of you who reviewed! We received some interesting guesses but we're not going to announce who's correct or not. Did anyone catch the subtle hints? If not, no worries! Zio and 'Nurse Joy's identity, as well as some of the other unknown characters mentioned will be revealed later on in the fic.

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"Ow, my head," Zio groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. Not surprisingly, his body still ached all over from the prior abuse after an angry kid had tackled him with his 115 lbs. body. _That felt like a Body Slam!_

"Are you sure you're ok?" Nurse Joy pouted at him, honestly the way her eyes were watering were making him feel worse than his encounter with the less than well-meaning patient. Tom Nook had left not long ago, quickly stammering his thanks after having his nice cup of coffee.

"Would you like me to get you an ice pack?" Nurse Peach asked, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder, still concerned for the well-being of the youth.

Zio laughed uneasily, waving his gloved fingers to fan away the worry, "I'm ok! It happens all the time." _He probably didn't mean it anyway. He was probably just stressed out._

Nurse Joy gave him a look a mother would to child who'd scrapped his knee, "Well, alright," she finally concluded. She heaved a sigh of relief and daintily walked out, followed by Peach, leaving Zio to himself. He stretched the anxiety out of his joints and cast a glance at the machinery he had seemed to have forgotten in the midst of the struggle, "Close one, wasn't it ROB?"

The pile of metal beeped absently and caused Zio to chuckle oddly, a grin gracing his face like it was making a joke. He gave his goggles a tap to remind himself of why he was here.

"Oh right, I need to fix the..." he trailed off as he reevaluated the damage of the room again, "we can fix the TV later." _Yeah like when it's not in a billion pieces. _He made his way over the debris, he had other things to attend to. When he noticed ROB not following, he poked his head back in and whistled for it. It made some garbled noise as it whirred loyally behind him, the wheels crushing the industrial plastic and other materials that had been left behind.

He folded his arms behind his head, walking at a leisurely and careless pace, mechanical helper making random sound effects for conversation. Zio had earned the title of most lax staff member for good reason after all.

After some length of intelligible babble, he hit a closed fist lightly on an open palm with realization, "You're absolutely right, we _should_ go visit him. Maybe he's cheered up a little!" The stupid grin on his face grew wider and ROB offered a whimper-beep in reply.

The one they were visiting was one of the 'nicer' ones as Zio called them, not that any of them were really mean, there was just 'nice' and 'nicer' in his head; he was of course barring the little mishap from earlier, and didn't think it counted. Red was just having a bad day, he told himself. Zio thought that he would be upset too, if someone also took his friends away from him.

He whistled a happy tune, oblivious to how passing some of the violent prisoners were smacking themselves against the walls or the ones being transferred between cells would yell or glare daggers at him. Zio would just smile and give a light wave with his fingers at them as they were carted away or drugged by an orderly.

"Ah here's his room!" He practically yelled. The blond gingerly took the knob and turned it quietly, creeping in carefully enough that his attire wouldn't rustle or squeak too loudly as he entered. In the corner was a blonde young man in a green tunic, sitting in the corner of the blindingly white room closest to the window. He was staring lazily outside, or at least as much he could from where he was sitting.

This one was special, he was mute so he wasn't exactly good to have chats with and he was harder to treat because he was so...apathetic to everything. But he was pretty creative, or so Zio thought.

He walked closer, apparently he hadn't noticed him yet, "Heya Link!" The older boy turned his head to look at him with dull eyes, he looked so tired. How they had learned his name was when they asked him to write it down, of course. Zio crouched down low next to him, utterly baffled and intrigued by what was so fascinating about looking through the window to the dull sky.

Link eventually shrugged, acknowledging Zio's existence, and not caring either way.

Despite this ROB maintained a good distance away from Link, it had been programmed to be safe and helpful, not stupid and trusting like Zio.

Zio beckoned ROB closer, though it didn't exactly comply. Zio ignored its rebellion and produced some items from his lab coat pockets, "Hey I brought some crayons and paper for you this time, Link!"

That was probably the only thing that ever got his attention: art time. It was completely against protocol, but hey, Zio was a nice guy and he figured since Link was a nice guy as well, giving him these little luxuries would do no harm.

He took the paper gratefully, his blue eyes lighting up with delight as he quickly started drawing something from his 'stories' as Zio had come to call them. Pity he would never know that Link had considered them fact and a reality he'd been deprived of. Even though Zio was indeed kind, in Link's mind he couldn't be as trusted as-

"Hey, how's Tink doing?" That mindless smile was there when he looked at Zio. Link looked utterly befuddled, a "hah?" sound was all he could manage.

Zio wrinkled his nose and checked himself, "Oh, the little warrior guy, how's he doing?"

There were two Tinks according to Link's pictures and labeling, a scary man in all green or the cat-eyed child who fought evil by using a conductor's wand. The latter was the one Zio almost always referred to, talking about the other Tink was something that led to 'episodes.'

Link seemed to relax at the clarification and continued drawing; he had a unique style. Zio considered it to be fairly interesting looking and would probably look better in watercolor. Between visits, Zio wondered if Link had ever wanted to be an artist.

But...today was different. He'd grabbed the black crayons today, not the greens or the blues or yellows. He wasn't sure what to make of it, so instead of doing anything logical, like taking precautions, he simply watched.

As the picture became more completed Zio's cheerfulness began to collapse, "Wh-who's that?" he asked with a nervous chuckle. It looked utterly menacing, like some kind of nightmare captured on paper.

Link smiled lazily at him, his normally dull eyes taking on a sinister aspect. Zio swore he saw a glint of red there, and his features seemed a bit more shadowy and darker than usual. And even more disturbingly he heard a chuckle coming from Link's throat, one that doesn't fit the 'nice guy' he was used to visiting.

Out of nowhere the older boy lunged at him, grabbing Zio's garb with white-knuckled grips. Zio yelped and ROB instinctively reacted on its master's behalf- it reached out a mechanical arm and with demonic crackling, shocked the living daylights out of Link. Not enough to kill him but enough to make him let go. The yell is a bonus, the instilled obedience, the purpose at all.

Zio grasped the lip of his coat where he'd been grabbed. This was the second assault in the same day, yet this time he felt like he'd actually been hurt this time. He seriously considered taking a nice break after leaving as he scrambled for the door, but still taking the time to shut the door of Link's cell softly and carefully. Something in him twisted uncomfortably when he caught a glimpse of that lost and wounded look on Link's face as he shut the door.

The technician walked off, feeling more betrayed than last time, but that's ok; he'll learn to trust Link again. Time will heal his faith in him being a 'nice guy'. He rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes, not understand why it hurt.

Link however simply continued to sit at the floor staring mindlessly at his paper and crayons.

The sound of a child's innocent and cruel laughter fell on his ears, and he saw the black specter of a child appear out of nowhere. It taunted him, red cat-eyes glittering with absolute mirth and smiling knowingly at the scene that's been stuck on repeat since he'd gotten here.

_'See I told you, you can only trust m-e!_'

Link sighed to himself. It was difficult to reject the little shadow's words when they have been proven true once more.

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A/N: Tink's identity should be self-explanatory. We just combined the character's name XD.


End file.
